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At last there are some contracts being “sunshined” on next week’s council agenda – I just gave a quick read of the confidential and fire department contratcts- it looks like the city is asking for those employees to pay their full 9 percent share of their pensions. The tentative management and police contracts are also available.

8 Responses to “Tentative contracts available on next week’s council agenda”

Hi Juanita,
We’ve been working on some stuff related to the excessive compensation for Chico city employees. I’m hoping they aren’t having a final vote on Tuesday. I just finished a poster final draft a couple hours ago. But there may not be enough time to get it printed. And we were going to do postcards to be sent to the Council too.

However even if they pass it, we will still be paying about 4% more than Beverly Hills (it’s 9% now).

Thanks a lot Michael, that sounds fabulous! If you need help with postcards, let me know.

I don’t know the contract process, I hope they won’t pass these Tuesday – the public has not had enough time to weigh in. I’ve only read two, and only piecemeal.

Frankly, I want them to pay more like 90 percent of their benefits. As is, they pay 9 or less, we pay at least 30, and the rest is just floating around out there, you know, an island the size of Texas…

This is the initial “sunshining” of what has been tentatively agreed upon by the unions and the City. It will come back on January 21 for the vote; of course, by then I suspect they will all have pretty much decided how to vote. I am hoping they allow public input for the draft MOUs this Tuesday, but since they are agendized under Reports and Communications, they may not even be mentioned. I would recommend putting speaker cards in for that specific item (6.1) at the beginning of the meeting to let them know you have something to say. It will be interesting to see whether or not they will honor them. As an additional point of information, they also agendized all of the contracts as one item, which is a problem I recently ran into with minutes. They will only allow you 3 minutes to address them all, period (unless there are different rules for rabble rousers like me), so be prepared to either tag team your comments with some friends or talk really fast. :-\

Thanks Mary, I suddenly realized, I been waiting for these without knowing what to do about them. I was starting to get into an ass-panic.

I also realize, I will not be here Tuesday. My family is doing a whirl-wind trip to SoCal to do a bunch of errands and see Grandpa for his big 7-0. But, I will be watching on my box, and I will be home by Wednesday, ready to work.

We are going to Oregon on Sunday. I haven’t decided yet whether to come back early Tuesday to make the meeting. What I wanted to talk about belongs under the usual Budget Update item, which is conspicuously missing from this agenda, so I would have to wait for Business from the Floor when the place is virtually empty. That irritates me. I really want to start a petition to move Business from the Floor to the front of the agenda, as they do in many other jurisdictions (including Hemet), as a courtesy to those who just want to speak to the Council. Wonder if that would get any traction…

At any rate, if I decide to come home Tuesday, I plan to also put in a speaker card for the contracts. I just want to suggest that in the future, they give the public an opportunity to be heard BEFORE the negotiations begin. I understand that the negotiations themselves are confidential, but it would not hurt them to hear from the public ahead of time. Once the agreements are drafted, there isn’t much chance for any substantial changes.

Genius Mary, I agree. It would be a total turnaround – putting the citizens first for a change! I’d be glad to help you with that petition.

I also agree, even if they can’t talk, they can listen to us about what we want from the contracts. Also, I hate to sound like a baby, but they need to write the contracts in less confusing language. I know that sounds dumb, but there’s “layman’s terms” for every word in those contracts, and they just make them as onerous as possible. I didn’t understand a lot of that stuff. They say we can ask them anything we want, but if I try to get in more than one question at those morning meetings, they start to treat me like I’m a troublemaker or something. It’s time to get the public into this process, and the public is just going to have to bust in.

I will be partying with old people and donkeys, it should be interesting.

In all seriousness, Alicia, Quené, and I have been on the receiving end of that troublemaker treatment for some time now. I personally don’t give a rat’s rear end. I am going to ask questions until I get the answers I want. But that’s just me, a disruptive but proud bridge burner. We knew from the outset that we wouldn’t be making any friends around there, and we’re okay with that. Don’t stop, Juanita; you are not a baby and you have a right to get your questions answered.